1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information conveyance system and a microchip-embedded printing medium used in the information conveyance system.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a method of conveying information, visual information has conventionally been distributed by being printed on a printing medium such as paper. Since this information conveyance method wherein visual information is printed on a printing medium is intuitive, this method has been used mainly in the fields of photography and the like. However, this method has some drawbacks. For example, forgery is easy and a printing medium tends to be degraded easily. In addition, the type and an amount of information are limited. Furthermore, only visually unimpaired people can use information conveyed by this method, and security is not sufficiently high since anybody with normal vision can see the information. In order to overcome these drawbacks, a method of conveying information by recording the information in an IC chip has been proposed (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-285203), since microchips are being put in to practice with development of a technology to down size IC chips. In this method, a printing medium (such as cloth or paper) embedded with a non-contact IC chip is used for printing visual information thereon. At the same time, information that is necessary for a purpose and usage (such as a sound, an image, and text) and related to the visual information is recorded in the IC chip to be conveyed. A recipient of the information can read the information recorded in the IC chip by using a reading apparatus such as an IC reader.
However, capacity of a non-contact IC chip capable of being embedded in a printing medium is 1024 bits at most. Therefore, it is difficult for audio information and image information to be recorded therein, and the above-described information conveyance method using the printing medium embedded with an IC chip has hardly been put into practice.
Furthermore, for a recipient of the information, it is troublesome that he/she needs a dedicated reading device (such as an IC reader) for reproducing the information recorded in the IC chip.
Moreover, in the field of photography, if a photograph is printed on a photographic printing medium embedded with an IC chip while information is recorded in the IC chip by an IC writer or the like, the time necessary for writing the information and data compression becomes long. Therefore, completion of photograph generation is delayed.
Meanwhile, digital information obtained by a digital camera or a digital camcorder is recorded in a flash memory card such as Compact Flash (CF) and Smart Media (SSFDC) that is light and small. However, flash memory cards are expensive, and not suitable for long-term image storage, unlike a negative film for a silver-salt film camera. Therefore, a user either deletes an image file from a flash memory card or moves the image files for storage in a hard disc of his/her personal computer or in a data storage server in a laboratory, after printing the image files in the card. However, an image file obtained by a digital camera or a digital camcorder includes other information, in addition to a photograph image (an image to be printed). For example, the information includes tag information that is useful for image processing at the time of printing, and moving image information for serial photography or for a movie. Therefore, if the image file is deleted after printing of the image, the information is also deleted. In the method of storing an image file by moving the image file in a hard disc of a personal computer, necessity of the computer significantly diminishes the portability of a digital camera on a trip or the like. In the method of storing image files in a data storage server in a laboratory or the like by using a remote communication function of a camera, a user needs to access the server via a public telecommunication line or the like, in order to search for a desired one of the image files in the server. Thereafter, the user also needs to carry out complex operations such as user authentication and search for a desired one of the files. In the case where a plurality of image files are stored in a plurality of servers, a user needs to carry out more complex operations for management of a relationship between a printed photograph and a corresponding one of the image files, relationships between the image files and the servers, and the addresses of the servers.